Napoléon of Abel Gance

Lecture by Georges Mourier; 09.04.13.30, French Institute

Georges Mourier is filmmmaker and restoration expert, specialist of Abel Gance's work, to which he has dedicated a number of publications since his days as a cinematography student, he is also a personal friend of Clarisse Gance, the director's daughter, and of Claude Lafaye, Gance's faithful friend during the 15 last years of his life. As a director, his films include a documentary about Gance, entitled À l'Ombre des grands chênes (In the Shade of Great Oaks, 2005). Since 2008, he is currently overseeing a six-and-a-half-hour restoration of Abel Gance's Napoléon for the Cinémathèque française. While this intense mission, in 2016, for the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux Pathé, he made also the expert appraisal of the worldwide fund of "La Roue" (1923), for their own restoration. At the end of his conference about his work for Napoléon, he'll present the first restored scene of this complex work in progress.